Got the venue about an hour before doors, line was super long. I got in the venue about 1:10ish, and Thrown into Exile had already started. They sounded alright, but I just used their set time to go get a schedule thing and look around. I tried to find the sumerian stage and/or tent but couldn't see where it was. I asked a guy working the sumerian merch tent and he told me he was up in a different area of the venue, where the was a bit of open space. I decided I'd go investigate during Attika 7's perforamance. In the mean time me and my friend Alex went to the Jager stage to go check out Huntress.

If you don't know already, Huntress are a traditional sounding metal group with a female singer. They sounded pretty good live and it was obvious they were stoked on the experience. It was with them I noticed a trend with a lot of the opening side stage bands. It seemed that just about all of 'em referred to the crowd simply as "Mayhem Fest" never acknowledging the location. Nothing serious, but I thought it was kind of funny. The sound for Huntress was good except the vocals being a little underneath the mix and absolutely like 0 bass. Fortunately the singer didn't sound too bad in the live setting, but when ever she went for Halford level highs I was like "bitch, nah". Overall though they were a fun band with some decent songs. The song the opened with is still stuck in my head. I don't the the setlist for sure so I'm making assumptions for the most part based on the other setlist I've seen and what I remember them announcing.

Huntress
Spell Eater
Zenith
Blood Sister
I Want To Fuck You To Death
Eight Of Swords

After their set we went to check out the Sumerian Stage and to my relief and excitement we actually got a stage. This made Slap a happy boy.

After that we went to the Jager tent again to check out Battlecross

I was pleasantly surprised by these guys. I had heard some of their songs before going to Mayhem, so I knew they were a decent band, but they put on a really good performance. They were really full of energy and I was impressed with the vocalist and bassist the most. The vocalist has really good growls of all types, from Trevor Strnad-like highs and Johan Hegg-like lows. And the bassist was really impressive. His technique was great and he was doing a lot from slapping, two hand taps and there was some song that featured a bass solo I wish I could've heard better. Musically, nothing out of the ordinary, but definitely the perfect kind metal for a thing like Mayhem Fest. I can see these dudes getting big. Again, I don't really know the setlist, so I'm basing it off what I've heard elsewhere, only thing I can confirm is they didn't do a that Pantera cover this time.

The next three band were all shit, Born of Osiris, Butcher Babies and Motionless in White, so me and my friend just kind of wandered around checking out merch and stuff. We went to the rockstar tent where they had all the free shit and I didn't really like the selections this year. They had two Rockstar Energy Waters, Tropical Citrus, and Blueberry Pomegranate Acai (only reason I know the names is because there's an ad for them on the back of the tour program), which tasted like a retard baby between Vitamin Water and that G2 gatorade stuff. The three cans they had were tea/leamonade, green apple and some bubblegum shit. The latter two were too artificial for me and I've never like tea, that one wasn't great. Also, I recognized one of the Rockstar girls walking around as my waitress at some local restaurant. Thought that was funny. Observations I made one those three bands were that BoO suck, Butcher of Babies weren't as naked as I thought they'd be, and Motionless in White is legit the stupidest shit I've ever had the misfortune of being around in a live setting. Their look, character and sound is just cringe-worthy. I wasn't aware whispering into the mic was a new style of singing scene core bands used.

I was planning on checking out a bit of JFAC for old-times sake but was like fuck it and just went to the Sumerian Tent to make sure it was running ahead of schedule because I didn't want to miss Scorpion Child. Fortunately they were on schedule and I was able to grab some rail and get ready for the best side stage band of the day.

Scorpion Child are the Led Zeppelin response to all the Sabbath-worship bands in recent history. They proved to be serious business when I noticed every member was wearing jeans, including the drummer. They sounded really great and had delicious fuzzy tones. The singer was a good frontman and was doing a lot of tricks with the mic-stand and such. There was a time he picked it up fast the bottom half of it flew off. I was worried it was gonna hit one of the security dudes when I saw it flying but it didn't. So he went Chuck Billy style for a bit until abandoning the whole mic-stand for the rest of the set, by throwing it like a javelin into the area between the barrier and the stage. He also went to sit on some of the monitors on the side of the stage and stuff like that. They were really entertaining, and were the first band I heard all day to refer to us as Mountain View, which I was impressed with because most of the time when bands try locations they just say Bay Area or San Francisco. So props to Scorpion Child for not only putting on a badass set but getting our location right. I'm definitely gonna check out their debut now.

After that me and my pal went back the main side stages. My pal wanted to get a close spot of Bodom, so we did that and heard Machine Head in the distance. Their set was the same as the one posted earlier. I was disappointed to only hear Rob Flynn yell "HEAD BANG MOTHERFUCKER" like 3 times. I was hoping at least 10. The shit went on too long and caused CoB to start late.

Machine Head
This Is the End
Imperium
Old
Locust
Halo

Children of Bodom went on people went nuts. I wasn't expecting so much excitement, I mean there were people shouting and chanting for Bodom well before Machine Head were done. So when they started people went nuts and the pits started. Unfortunately a good amount of the crowd were the kind of people who didn't realize that when you get in the pit, you're gonna get pushed around and you're going that have crowd surfers falling on you every so often. This caused a few scuffles between dudes with their ladies and dude who just wanted to have fun. And I saw plenty of people rush through the crowd to get close then one song later push their way out of the crowd because it was hectic. Meanwhile, Children of Bodom sounded pretty good, and when Alexi isn't singing and shredding, he's swearing. You know, the classy stuff more-or-less like "holy motherfucking shit, motherfuckers, you guys are fucking crazy, holy shit". Either way, even though I don't care about the band too much, they were fun and some of their material really isn't all that bad. After that we rushed to the main stage in time to catch Amon Amarth, we got to our seats right as they started.

As weird as it was to watch them while sitting, I didn't give a fuck because my legs needed the break and I could see them perfectly fine. The viking ship set up was awesome. The thing blows smoke every now and again. Also, the water background gets dropped for when they play the title track of their new album, to the album artwork for Deceiver of the Gods. It was obvious the dudes were glad to be on the fest and were having fun. Although some of the guitar were low in the mix, they sounded pretty good and Johan is probably one of my favorite vocalists in melodic death metal. It's always a good time to see these guys.

Amon Amarth
Destroyer of the Universe
The Pursuit of Vikings
War of the Gods
Deceiver of the Gods
Death in Fire
Twilight of the Thunder God

Next up were the band I really came for Mastodon. As you guys might know, I just saw them this past Wednesday, so I already saw a good amount of the set, but it was still fun to see the dudes again in this setting. Only thing that was a bummer was that everything Brent Hinds related was low in the mix. I couldn't hear his solos too well or his vocals very well except for Curl of the Burl. At this point this really isn't too much I can say that I haven't already. I love The Hunter, but love the other albums more so it'd be nice if the set was more varied. At least for the most part they stuck to mostly heavier tunes from The Hunter, and they played Blood and Thunder, which is always a pleasure.

Me and my pal skipped 5FDP for obvious reasons. We spent the time just chatting and stuff. There was one point I noticed a dude that looked like Brann Dailor and was like, that dude sure does look like Brann Dailor. Then I noticed a dude went up to him and some other guy noticed him, so I was like, well shit that’s Brann Dailor. So we went up to him and talked for a bit. I did my best not to go completely fangirl, and I didn’t go over the top “OMG LIKE YOU GUYS ARE LIKE MY FAVORITE BAND YOU GUYS ARE PERFECT” but I just told him some basic stuff like Mastodon is my favorite, I discovered them at the first Mayhem, this was my 7th time seeing them and other stuff. Also, this was the most famous did I’ve talked to, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous. Other than that though we were mainly just talking about stuff like how the tour was going, how cool Queens of the Stone Age are, and how they were doing on new material. If it wasn’t obvious already, the new Mastodon is more than likely gonna drop in 2014. He was nice enough to sign my tour program and take a photo. I usually don’t that kind of thing but he’s my favorite drummer and from my favorite band since 2008, so why not? He was a totally awesome dude. Definitely glad that happened.

By the time Brann took of to hang with the dudes from Machine Head, 5FDP was over so we went in to catch Rob Zombie. He came on and it was kind of a weird experience for me. He’s not unenjoyable by any means, but his new stuff wasn’t that great and while his stage show was cool, the music really just did nothing for me, and it would look like I wasn’t alone by the lack movement I saw in the crowd. I didn’t see many people shouting along or dancing or anything like that, but it was obvious people were eating it up. Like the dude next to me was singing all the words to a lot of the songs and giving roaring applauses after each song, but he did so while standing complete static. It was just weird. Other than that, the set was definitely my least favorite of the night. Also John 5 can shred. We cut out before the encore to beat traffic and then got some In-n-Out. Overall, this Mayhem was a success.

Zombie didn't play Red Red Kroovy, which I was kinda bummed about.
And I was probably complaining to you all last night, but 5FDP an inbred version of Disturbed. And that's saying something.
Awesome you ran into Brann though

Yeah, this woulda been me 3rd time seeing them if I stuck around, which is why me and my friend walked out of the amphitheater during their set. Sad thing is the other 2 times I saw them were at Mayhem Fest. I'm sick of that band.

And it was super awesome running into Brann. He's such a cool and nice dude.

I applaud you for not having a fanboy moment like I did in 2008 when I met the whole band (Granted I was 16 at the time, but meeting Mastodon was just such a surreal moment for me since they are favorite band of all-time.) I'm going to try for a redemption in a few weeks at their signing, I hope to christ it doesn't happen again

Oh dude, it woulda been baaaaaaaaaaaaad had I met them when I was 16. It was definitely surreal. Like, this dude has been my favorite drummer and is in my favorite band since I was like 14 and I just met him randomly roaming around. I have photo evidence but it still feels like something that wouldn't happen. I'm still just like, damn...

In '09 when they were touring with Dethklok, Bill was having dinner at the same place I was but I didn't see him until I was walking out. I wanted to say something to him, but he was eating and was with somebody so I just let it go. If he was alone, probably would have just said something stupid and offered to buy him a beer.

Meeting your heroes can be tricky. Learned the hard way in '94 when I ran into James and Lars at a Sharks game. Lars was at least good enough to sign something for me even if he didn't seem too interested, but James just looked off in another direction.

Met Jeff from High on Fire in the crowd at Intronaut/Animals as Leaders and talked to him for a bit. Super cool dude.

Jeff's a great guy, very very chill and he's always smiling and in a good mood when he isn't onstage. I remember he hung out outside the venue talking with me and my friends for like 20-30 minutes before a show two years ago, apparently he has mad 12-string bass skills haha.

I've got to meet a few 'big' guys I guess now, but I've only gone total fanboy a few times. The first time was when I talked to Chuck Billy like three years ago, and the second time was when I chatted with Tom Hunting a year ago. After doing a bunch of interviews and stuff, it's hard to see a lot of these guys as anything more than just regular dudes.

I would probably lose my shit if I ever met Rob Halford or Glenn Tipton though.

Jeff's a great guy, very very chill and he's always smiling and in a good mood when he isn't onstage. I remember he hung out outside the venue talking with me and my friends for like 20-30 minutes before a show two years ago, apparently he has mad 12-string bass skills haha.

I've got to meet a few 'big' guys I guess now, but I've only gone total fanboy a few times. The first time was when I talked to Chuck Billy like three years ago, and the second time was when I chatted with Tom Hunting a year ago. After doing a bunch of interviews and stuff, it's hard to see a lot of these guys as anything more than just regular dudes.

I would probably lose my shit if I ever met Rob Halford or Glenn Tipton though.

That is where I am at right now. the only times I have been fanboy was the first time I met Devin Townsend, Mike Portnoy, and when I met Down on their tourbus in January. Every other time it just felt like hanging out with regular guys who enjoy the same music I do, Honestly, that's a better feeling than being full Fanboy Mode all the time.

As for this tour, i will admit I wish i could go, but the only bands I wanna see on the tour will be doing full headlining tours by the end of the year anyways.

That is where I am at right now. the only times I have been fanboy was the first time I met Devin Townsend, Mike Portnoy, and when I met Down on their tourbus in January. Every other time it just felt like hanging out with regular guys who enjoy the same music I do, Honestly, that's a better feeling than being full Fanboy Mode all the time.

As for this tour, i will admit I wish i could go, but the only bands I wanna see on the tour will be doing full headlining tours by the end of the year anyways.

You got to meet Down on their tour bus!? YOU LUCKY BASTARD! I met them in Philly with the whole VIP thing, but no tour bus!